The Higher Education and Productivity (HEP) Project is a three-year, Php61.5 million ($1.5 million) activity that improves the alignment of industry needs with education outcomes and strengthens industry-academe linkages. The project aims to address the skills gap and mismatch, and supply the necessary human resources to support accelerated, broad-based and inclusive growth.

The Facilitating Public Investment (FPI) Project is a Php608.2 million ($14.8 million) five-year project which addresses the PFG intervention theme of regulatory quality. The project will work with the Philippine Government addressing the tax revenue inefficiencies, tax/duty evasion issues and public spending limitations to inform the Philippines’ fiscal management of public goods and services necessary to spur private investment.

The Development Credit Authority (DCA) Loan Portfolio Guarantee (LPG) is a 10-year, Php4.18 billion ($95 million) credit guarantee program that encourages lending to businesses – predominantly small/medium enterprises (SMEs). The guarantee serves to stimulate targeted commercial investment and to increase the number of start-up SMEs in second-tier cities outside of metro Manila and surrounding regions in the Philippines.

The Advancing Philippine Competitiveness (COMPETE) Project is a four-year, Php774.5 million ($18.9 million) project began in October 2012. COMPETE assists the Philippines to improve its competitiveness to attain higher levels of trade and investment. To this end, the Project will provide technical assistance to enhance the regime for infrastructure provision, improve productivity in key industries, and increase access to credit.

USAID/Philippines’ University Partnership Linking Out-of-School Youth to Agri-Entrepreneurship and Development to promote Job Opportunities (UPLOAD JOBS) Project for Mindanao is a three-year initiative that addresses the key constraints to peace and stability in Midsayap, Mindanao. The project aims to provide quality life skills combined with targeted workforce skills that create pathways for reintegration of out-of-school youth (OSY) as productive members of their communities.

USAID/Philippines’ Strengthening Information for Education Policy, Planning and Management in the Philippines Phase II (PhilEd Data II) project provides technical assistance to DepEd in making better use of data to support its reforms, policies and plans for the basic education sector.

USAID/Philippines’ Padayon Mindanao is a three-year project that supports peace building in select conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, Negros and Bicol by improving life skills of vulnerable youth through conduct of leadership camps and literacy summits focused on promoting civic engagement and peace education.

USAID/Philippines’ Innovative Development through Entrepreneurship Acceleration (IDEA) Project is a three-year public-private partnership with the Philippine Development S&T Foundation, Inc. IDEA will bring a culture of entrepreneurship into the growing engineering and science programs in the Philippine higher education system. It brings a market-oriented lens to the university curriculum for research-oriented science and engineering higher education programs, which will strengthen human capacity and effectiveness of market-relevant workforce skills in the country.

USAID/Philippines’ Education Governance Effectiveness (EdGE) is a five-year (2013-2018) project which seeks to improve education governance through decentralization, with the end goal of improving learning outcomes, particularly early grade reading for at least one million children.

Basa Pilipinas is USAID/Philippines’ flagship basic education project in support of the Philippine Government’s early grade reading program. Implemented in close collaboration with the Department of Education (DepEd), Basa Pilipinas aims to improve the reading skills for at least one million early grade students in Filipino, English and selected mother tongues. This will be achieved by improving reading instruction, reading delivery systems, and access to quality reading materials. The project commenced in January 2013 and will be implemented for four years (2013-2016).